Alex | Decoding China

US-educated Chinese engineer. Translating CCP newspeak into plain English 🇨🇳→🗳️ Follow for what Chinese state media won't tell you.

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

Two Kinds of Free Speech

Chinese nationalists love telling the West: "You don't have real free speech either."

Okay. Let's compare. Not slogans, cases.

In China, the powerful have a name that can't be touched.

Luo Changping, a former investigative journalist, wrote one sarcastic post about Chinese soldiers in the Korean War movie hype. Sentenced to 7 months in prison (2022) for "damaging the reputation of heroes and martyrs."

Qiu Ziming, a blogger with 2.5 million followers, questioned the official death toll from the Galwan border clash. Sentenced to 8 months (2021), and made to apologize on state TV.

BYD sued a car blogger for trashing its cars and won ¥313,800 plus a public apology. Regulators shut his account down on top of that.

And when a car review site proves a problem? In October, Dongchedi bought brand-new Huawei-backed Zunjie V800s with its own money and slammed the brakes from 100 km/h. In three cars out of three, the brake pedal bracket snapped. One car had 3 km on it.

The government did open an investigation into the car. But within about a week, the test videos had vanished from Douyin, WeChat, Bilibili, Weibo, even Dongchedi's own app. No one has explained who ordered it.

A broken brake is a safety issue. A video of a broken brake, apparently, is a bigger one.

But ordinary people have no name at all.

Zheng Linghua, 23, dyed her hair pink and posted a photo with her grandfather to celebrate getting into grad school. Strangers called her a whore, a "demon," an old man's mistress. She tried to fight back legally: months of collecting evidence, chasing platforms, finding lawyers. She was diagnosed with depression. She died in January 2023.

No 7 months for anyone. No state TV apology. Her abusers just moved on to the next target.

Now look at America.

You can call the President an idiot, a fascist, a clown, every day, on TV, and nothing happens. That's not a loophole. The Supreme Court built it on purpose. New York Times v. Sullivan (1964): public figures must prove "actual malice" to win a defamation case. Hustler v. Falwell (1988): you can even mock a famous preacher in a vulgar parody. The more power you have, the more criticism you have to take.

But there's still a line. Threats aren't speech. Last month in Kansas, a 24-year-old commented "Let's shoot Trump" on Facebook before a rally. Federal agents arrested him within days.

And when the powerful attack the powerless? Two Black election workers in Georgia, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, were falsely accused by Rudy Giuliani, Trump's own lawyer, of rigging the 2020 election. They got death threats. They sued. A jury awarded them $148 million.

Sandy Hook parents were told by Alex Jones that their murdered children were "actors." Courts ordered him to pay over $1.4 billion.

Ordinary people, beating the most powerful men in the room.

So here's the difference.

In China, freedom points down. You can't touch the people above you, so you're "free" to crush the people below you. Free to bully a girl with pink hair. Free to call a foreign athlete a monkey. Free to dox a stranger. That's not freedom. That's permission.

In America, freedom points up. Mock the President all you want. But if you lie about a nobody and wreck her life, the law, and usually a crowd of strangers online, comes for you.

Lu Xun wrote this almost exactly 100 years ago:

勇者愤怒，抽刃向更强者；怯者愤怒，却抽刃向更弱者。
"The brave, when angry, draw their blade against the stronger. The coward, when angry, draws it against the weaker."

A civilized country isn't one that bows to the strong and stomps on the weak.

So I'll ask you: which freedom would you want? The freedom to criticize those in power, or the freedom to bully those who can't fight back?

The China I love is made of people who stand up for what's right, not social Darwinists who kneel to the strong and prey on the weak.

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@62qoe 在中国敢说话的人都混进监狱了。出国当然好了，至少自由。

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@FISHERWUofvy @62qoe 是的，多少虎在中国被训成了猫，说话都不敢说

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@WXF121019 跟亚洲人没关系吧 克林顿出轨也是大新闻

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

In America, criticizing the government is a national hobby.
In China, comparing the leader to Winnie the Pooh is a national security threat.
One country lets you say the emperor has no clothes.
The other bans the bear for looking too much like the emperor — then insists the clothes are magnificent.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Today:

60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major nation.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of households and the 1% have never ever had it so good

Not acceptable

We need an economy that works for all, not just the few.

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

中国GDP比美国低
小粉红：“不能这么比”，“国情不同”，“制度不是唯一因素”，“美国有掠夺/霸权”

中国GDP比印度高
小粉红：制度优越性！独裁比民主好！

哦？这个时候不考虑国情了？

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@yngk346722 说的太对了 让大家都上去试试吧 中国那么多大学生找不到工作，至少比一个小学生好吧

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@JinJingx8 他们自己买不了星巴克吗？

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@8964love @KleeberS2555 有图有真相了👀👀

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

评论区的小粉红居然觉得中国出现130起无差别恐怖袭击事件很少。

真正犯罪率低的国家，像冰岛，2017，伯娜·布鲁克斯多蒂尔（Birna Brjánsdóttir）遇害案，出现1个谋杀案，是全国震动的大新闻。
真正凶杀案高的国家，美国，因为有枪，2025年有14000多起，中国，按照中国的数据，大约7000起，远超中国。但中国是没有吗？

但是体感，完全不同，每次都能看到报道，单一谋杀案可能讨论度不高。但是较为恶劣的，仍会引起全国和世界范围的大讨论。

中国呢？哪个恶劣事件，引起过全国参与的大讨论，游行，纪念哀悼？

这样的国家安全吗？一个连凶杀，恐怖袭击，都不算大新闻的国家？却积极报道日本鸡蛋涨价的国家？

小粉红如果，觉得中国安全，就详细聊聊你们所熟知的，和讨论的近期中国恶劣案件。

[昨天 @YesterdayBigcat]

墨尔本事件后，不少中国人说“还是中国治安好”。好到什么程度呢？2023年至今，中国发生了至少130起针对平民的无差别恐怖袭击事件，造成至少150人死亡。这还不包括其他海量的凶杀案件。

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

你小学毕业了吗？智商测验通过了吗？冲突什么玩意了？
我是普通用户，不是政府，不是公权力，不是平台。我让你别在我帖子下碍我的眼，妨碍你自己发帖爱说什么说什么了吗？我这出事了吗？你不能转发我发的东西吗？你在我这评论被删除了吗？被封号了吗？
而且我唯一能做的是block你们，但我甚至都没block过你们，在我这说什么屁话，我都让你们随便评论了。你们习包子有我这么宽容吗？

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@KleeberS2555 @8964love 啊 我在哪关你什么事 我又不用华为不会被监控被定位

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

Is China right about those traps?

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

@teslamillion @yngk346722 残疾人 孤儿 算什么

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

Yet one idiot can beat 40 scholars by just breathing.👀

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

Who do we need to vote for to see the real list and real consequences? Or that never gonna happen?🤐🤐

[Rathbone @_rathbone]

If Russell Brand is going to prison for rape that occurred 20 years ago, why isn’t anyone in the Epstein files going too?

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

Nothing surprising here. China has been running the same play for years—recruit people with access, build relationships, and extract technology or influence. Remember Micron? Chinese entities systematically poached talent and stole DRAM IP on a massive scale. Now it’s the same logic applied to Nvidia’s AI chips and the CEO who has been lobbying hardest to loosen export controls. The method evolves; the objective doesn’t.

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: Secretary of State Marco Rubio had warned Trump officials that Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, was entangled with a Chinese spy, multiple people briefed on the matter said. https://t.co/Zz2cqRZa58

[Michael Ron Bowling @mrbcyber]

The west is clearly not prepared to deal with China's incredibly aggressive espionage. We see this with the Nvidia case and this story from the UK.

A businessman from Britain was collecting compromising information on UK politicians. The FBI had him arrested in Serbia for trying to steal US military technology. He escaped to China on a chartered jet.

The Chinese government is using the same espionage networks to steal technology and terrorize regime critics. They support these networks with unlimited funds and even free flights to avoid prosecution.

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

6/
A Chinese citizen can work in Beijing or Shanghai for 15–20 years and still be treated as a temporary outsider.
Their kids often have fewer practical rights than the children of undocumented immigrants in America.
That’s the hukou system.

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

Being illegal immigrants in your own country?
Meet China’s hukou system.

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

5/
Compare that to unauthorized immigrants in the U.S.:
Their children have a constitutional right to free public K-12 education (Plyler v. Doe)

They have access to emergency medical care

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

4/
In 2017, after a fire in Beijing’s Daxing district killed 19 people (mostly migrants), the city launched a mass eviction campaign. Tens of thousands of migrant workers were forced out in winter. Officials referred to them as the “low-end population.”

[Alex | Decoding China @AlexDecodesCN]

3/
A Chinese rural worker moves to Shanghai or Beijing:
Local hukou is extremely hard to get, even after years of work and social insurance

Kids face major barriers to public schooling
Many must return to their hometown for high school and the gaokao